Happy days are here again.
The rise and fall of the surf industry could be a great, thick epic and one that may someday be written. Skipping toward the back half of the book, if Matt Warshaw had already put pen to paper and we had it in our hands, we would find chapters dedicated to Boardriders, the private equity group that scooped up Quiksilver and its holdings then Billabong and its holdings, becoming a behemoth but also weird with bankers etc. pulling surf strings.
Well, word has trickled out that one of Quik’s early purchases, Xcel, has been offloaded to a group of surf industry heavies.
The Hawaiian wetsuit brand founded by a man from New Jersey in 1982, has long been a staple in lineups around the world and always impressive to me. “How does a wetsuit brand get founded in Hawaii?” I’d wonder before remembering that man from New Jersey where the water gets icy cold.
Maybe not as cold as my hometown Coos Bay, Oregon but still.
In any case, Xcel became a staple though I feel semi-disappeared during the banker years but is now back, thanks to aforementioned heavies, and have signed the Ventura-by-way-of-Sunset product Sage Erickson as first order.
Smart.
And do you imagine this sets up the second volume of the Rise and Fall of the Surf Industry tentatively titled The Surf Industry Strikes Back wherein iconic brands are scooped back up by the core and kept that way?
Here’s to hoping.
Like a lot of brands Xcel had serious distribution issues during covid. Big fan of their 7 and 8mm booties.
Rocked Excel for years cuz they fit pretty well/worked good enough then got my first O’Neil in 20 years and was floored by how comfortable and it was.
So who’s the “ heavies” who bought it?
Same, been rocking needessentials for a few years now. Been really happy with them.
My friend who lives in Nova Scotia swears by Xcel for actual cold-ass water though. Says most of his crew who surf year round up there are using Xcel. He previously lived in Oregon so his cold-water cred is pretty solid.
I’m still stuck on that Oregon reference by Chas – need to look at data but hard to imagine anywhere much colder than NJ in Jan/Feb. At some point salt water just doesn’t get any colder.
100% NJ gets colder than OR in the winter months.
I used to buy previous year model Xcel suits at a shop in Pacific Beach for about half the original price. Xcels were always great suits and super easy to find for cheap… then they changed and need essentials came out
Xcel won SIMA several years in a row being the “Best all round Wetsuit” while still being the most affordable of all the brands at the time…boy those days are long gone. That’s where they f#%ked up.
I have a 6.5mm full suit that I wear for scuba diving. Great suit; warm, flexible, and durable. Best suit I’ve had so far. Looking to replace it with another Xcel suit soon.
Hope Xcel does well.
Billabong purchased Xcel in September 2007. Not sure how long they hung on to it for. Billabong probably wanted Xcel to use their patterns and tech, which were perhaps best in industry at the time, for their own suits. Xcel has had a few owners in the last 15 years. I doubt the new group of ‘core surfers’ will be able to get it to financially perform for them with so much quality competition out there. The previous owners likely sold as it didn’t generate the returns required to make it viable. I give it 5 years before it sinks and goes into the history books.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.smh.com.au/busi…
If you are core how the hell can you afford to buy a surf brand? I can barely afford a decent wetsuit nowadays.
We are merely witnessing the Core—>IPO—>bankruptcy/insolvency—>private equity acquisition—>Core brand cycle resetting it self. Give it enough time and Xcel will once again be in the hands of private equity ownership that has no idea how to run a surf brand and doesn’t care to. It’s taken a good 30 – 40 years for this to play out the first time around with most brands, but we should expect that this will happen roughly every decade going forward.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I’ve used Needesssentials for years now, really like them and can’t beat the price. Sizing about the same as other brands like ONeill, Xcel. The warmest ones with the white fuzzy stuff inside do not stretch as much so they fit a little smaller than the others
go to in winter for east coast is the 5/4 hooded oneill with 7 mill booties and 5mill lobster claws. Will have to give the needessentials a shot.
Boardriders in desperate need of cash? Refi and no buyers for the biz?
Sign Zeke and make his model come with knuckle dusters
Plus every Five finger death punch cd.
Club Rubber is back?
Clarke Rubber never left.
https://www.clarkrubber.com…
Wow, that is a name I hadn’t heard in a while. Those were the days, when Ecstasy wasn’t laced with Fentanyl and all you had to worry about was AIDS….
Jimbo Pellegrine ?